


Another Timeline

by syredronning



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 04:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21350278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syredronning/pseuds/syredronning
Summary: This Spock is different. Rescued from my lj comment section. Unbeta'd, all errors are mine.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Mirror Spock
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Another Timeline

The man on the beam platform looks almost like their Spock, aside of the interesting beard and the rugged look – his silken clothes are torn, a dark green stain on one shoulder signaling a wound. And there's the dagger in his belt, which the Vulcan now pulls and throws out of the transporter, onto the floor in front of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. "I came to ask for asylum, Captain Kirk," Spock#3 says.

In the debriefing, Spock#3 says that it's been all Kirk's idea. "You told me that in every revolution, there is one man with a vision," he recites, his dark, sharp eyes never leaving Kirk's face despite the other people on the table, not the least this timeline's Spock with Uhura at his side. "So seeing the illogic and impeding downfall of the Empire, I indeed became that person. But I failed."

"I never told you that," Kirk says. "We've never even met, Spock."

Spock#3 sits for a second in absolute, stunned silence, then nods, slowly. "Of course. Not just one timeline, but many."

"A limitless number," Spock confirms.

"And I… happened to take the wrong one," Spock#3 concludes, then falls silent again.

They let him stay anyway; he even once meets the old Spock, and the two men agree that it's possible their timelines had been the ones in question, but there's no proof and old Kirk isn't around to tell his own story. Kirk makes it a bit of a business to keep in touch with Spock#3; for one part, because he feels vaguely responsible – he's James Tiberius Kirk, after all, no matter the timeline – and for the other, because he's curious why Spock#3 had listened to him in the first place.

He gets all his answers when they end in bed together during one visit. The burning eyes, the hot hands… Spock#3 would probably find some biological excuse in the morning, but tonight, with the stars sparkling all around the small ship, the Vulcan's actions tell more of the truth than his lips ever did.

"They warned me of you," Kirk says, playing idly with the old, slightly ripped silk sash that had been around his wrists an hour ago.

"They rightly do," Spock#3 says, one hand around Kirk's hip, caressing his skin. The man has kept the beard, and Kirk is glad for it; it makes the whole thing less eerie, less like he's just fucked his first officer and friend. This Spock is a different creature, and that's good.

Kirk doesn't become a pirate or anything; Spock#3 never becomes a truly decent man by this timeline's definitions. Doesn't matter really when they meet over the years, always in shady corners of the universe to hide from their well-meaning colleagues and companions that have their own agendas.

When Spock#3 dies with a dagger in his heart, much too early but not unexpected, some of these well-meaning people send pictures of the bloody corpse to Kirk.

"I share your pain," Spock says when they look at them together.

"I always knew it couldn't last," Kirk replies solemnly and stores them deep in his private files. "Timelines, I learned, have a tendency to repair themselves."

"Indeed," Spock agrees, though that never explains why the old Spock is still happily shuffling around the universe, pulling strings and interfering whenever he can. Maybe the old guy just fits, whereas Spock#3… he'd always been wrong here.

"Will we ever know if there's a timeline where Spock's revolution has reached its goals?" Kirk asks, but they both know it's a rhetoric question. He gets up without waiting for an answer, leaving his room for the bridge with this universe's Spock at his heels.


End file.
